Pressley Has Demanded Action from Federal Reserve, Urged Powell to Uphold Fed’s Mandate of Maximum Employment for All Workers

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, and a coalition of Black women activists and civil rights leaders held a press conference to continue sounding the alarm on the rising number of Black women forced out of the workforce in the United States.

In Congress, Rep. Pressley has been calling on the Federal Reserve to take action as the Trump Administration’s mass federal workforce layoffs and anti-DEI policies disproportionately harm Black women and as Donald Trump attempts to seize control of the Fed by illegally firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

Congresswoman Pressley was joined at the press by Tamika D. Mallory, Co-Founder, Until Freedom, Strategist; Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Founder & Principal, Love & Power Works and Host & EP, UNDISTRACTED; Bishop Leah D. Daughtry, Co-Convenor, Power Rising and Convenor, Black Women’s Leadership Collective; Karen Boykin-Towns, Vice Chair, NAACP National Board of Directors ; Melanie L. Campbell, President & CEO, NCBCP and Convener, Black Women’s Roundtable; Valeisha Butterfield, Founder, Global State of Women; and Rev. Dr. Brianna K. Parker, Founder, Black Millennial Café.

“Let’s be clear: Black women are not just workers or numbers on a spreadsheet. We are the backbones of our families, our communities, and this country,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley. “The pushout of Black women from the American workforce is not just a crisis for Black women—it is a glaring red flag for the entire economy, damning evidence of Trump’s fiscally irresponsible and chaotic economic policies, and it has dangerous consequences for Black women, Black, families, and Black futures. We will not allow the White House’s anti-Black, anti-woman agenda to erase us from the paid workforce, and we’re demanding action now.”

“This is a direct attack on Black families, our stability, and our future,” said Tamika D. Mallory. “What people do not understand is that what is meant for evil against us will not only harm our communities, it will destroy America itself. Because when Black women lose work, our children lose resources, our communities lose anchors, and America loses progress. We will not be silent, because every time you try to push us down, you push down your own future. Every time you try to erase us, you erase the very progress that has kept this country alive.”

“Black women are essential to powering the economy across the board,” said Brittany Packnett Cunningham. “When Black women don’t work, this country doesn’t work. When Black women are in a state of emergency, so are you. Now this country threatens to leave its most essential architects left out in the cold, sick, hungry and without care. The Fed must meet this moment and fulfill their mandated obligation for maximum employment and the people will be awaiting Chair Powell’s plan to ensure black women are no longer shut out.”

“Black women are the foundation supporting not just nuclear families, but extended families across generations,” said Melanie L. Campbell. “When we are pushed out of the workforce through mass layoffs and systemic attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs, the ripple effects devastate us all. These are delivered attacks on the people who deliver critical services to the most vulnerable. These layoffs impact our country’s economic stability and at this moment, we need justice.”

“We know that Black women, from the foundation of this nation, have been the backbone of this nation’s economy,” said Bishop Leah D. Daughtry. “We are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in America. We drive trillions in consumer spending, and when Black women thrive, families and communities thrive. This is a national emergency. America cannot afford to sideline the very women who have always sustained its growth. We are here to fight for the women who have been locked out, left out, and left behind. America cannot survive without us. America cannot thrive without us. So get us back to work.”

“Soaring unemployment among Black women is not a footnote. It’s a catastrophic moral failure at the highest levels of the American system,” said Reverend Doctor Brianna K. Parker. “To be locked out of opportunity is a direct assault on the economic security of the children, the elderly, the students that Black women support. It’ll impact the patients we care for, the companies we establish. The failure here is not merely economic. It is a moral choice to ignore the suffering among those we serve. We cannot choose to run an unjust system.”

A full transcript of Congresswoman Pressley’s remarks is below. Footage from the press conference can be found here.

Transcript: Pressley, Black Women Leaders Sound Alarm on Black Women Rapidly Pushed Out of Workforce Under Trump Administration
House Triangle
September 25, 2025

Thank you for joining us. It certainly is a beautiful thing to be surrounded by such a powerful coalition of Black women justice seekers, table shakers, community builders, particularly at this critical inflection point for our nation. Each one of us standing before you today represents generations of Black women who came before us, who gave us life, spoke life into us, encouraged us, sacrificed for us.

And we are here today to continue sounding the alarm about a crisis that is both economic and moral: the shameful pushout of Black women from the workforce and the dangerous consequences for this nation, for Black women, for Black families and for Black futures.

The numbers don’t lie, and the numbers are damning. The latest job report shows the Black women’s unemployment rate has jumped to 6.7% when overall unemployment is at 4.3%. 

Since February, nearly 320,000 Black women have left the workforce. 

This is not a coincidence. 

This is the direct result of Donald Trump’s mass federal firing frenzy and his relentless racist attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Let’s be clear: Black women are not just workers or numbers on a spreadsheet. We are the backbones of our families, our communities, and this country.

Nearly 70% of Black women are the primary bread winners in their households, providing for children, parents, and elders. 

When we lose work, it reverberates far beyond our own families. Economists estimate in fact that just 2% of Black women being fired this year has cost our economy $37 billion in GDP spending. 

This is not just a crisis for Black women. This is a glaring red flag for the entire economy. 

It is a bellwether of what is to come if we continue down this path, and it is damning evidence of Donald Trump’s fiscally irresponsible and chaotic economic policies. 

His mass firings have gutted agencies where Black women make up much of the workforce – USAID, doing the work of combating disease, malnutrition, hunger. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, seeking justice for perhaps an elder in your family who’s been a victim of a predatory product. Housing and Urban Development, enforcing fair housing laws, administering affordable housing grants. Health and Human Services, doing that essential work. Department of Education, processing your FAFSA applications.

So the gutting of these agencies and the pushout of Black women from this workforce and that we represent 12% of the federal workforce is undermining the very institutions that deliver essential services to people in need.

And now, Trump is attempting an unlawful power grab by trying to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, the first Black woman to ever sit on the Federal Reserve Board. 

Her very presence is a reminder of the brilliance and expertise that Black women bring to shaping our economy, from the federal government to the C suite, and everywhere in between. 

His attacks on Governor Cook are racist, sexist, and unconstitutional, and consistent. He is obsessed with Black women.

And I’m glad the courts have stepped in to block this baseless firing. They must uphold the law and the independence of the Fed must be protected. 

Earlier this month, I wrote to Chairman Powell calling on the Federal Reserve to do its job and take immediate action to uphold the statutory mandate of maximum employment for all, and that includes addressing the skyrocketing unemployment rate among Black women. 

And we are not asking – we are demanding. 

We demand the Federal Reserve uphold its statutory mandate of maximum employment. 

We demand the Trump administration stop its precise coordinated attacks on Black women workers.

And we demand that Donald Trump end his reckless, racist, and irresponsible economic policies that are hurting all of us.

But really, our demand is simple. For Black women, for Black families, for Black futures – Chairman Powell, do your job. 

This man ran on economics, Donald Trump, so they say. Well, do right by hard working American families then. 

Trump wants to keep his knee on the neck of our economy and rob Black families of our dignity, our livelihood, and our futures – but not on our watch. 

I’ll close with this. Black women have always been essential to the American economy 

— from Sadie Alexander, the first Black woman to earn a PhD in economics, to Coretta Scott King’s fight for a federal job guarantee, to Lisa Cook shaping monetary policy today.

We have truly been the canary in the coal mine on this issue and so many others.

Because when Black women are working, when Black women are innovating, when Black women are thriving, our entire economy and country benefits. 

So we will not be silent, and we will certainly not be sidelined. And we will not allow the occupant of the White House’s anti-Black, anti-woman agenda to erase us from the paid workforce. 

Black women, Black families, Black futures. Our nation depends on it. 

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